Luis de Morales

Probably from the church of Concepción, Badajoz;
Probably Remisa collection;
Moret collection;
Barba collection, Madrid (the above all according to Bäcksbacka).

I. Bäcksbacka, Luis de Morales, Helsinki 1962, p. 185, no. A4, reproduced p. 268, fig. 12 (under Doubtful Paintings).

The actual painting is brighter than the catalogue illustration suggests and the cloak of Christ is less blue and more green in tone. The linen is relined and wider than its original painted form on the left side. The paint surface is very thin but this is the nature of the medium, not the result of wear. The seam is visible to the front, but no major damages are visible. The paint surface is under a clear varnish layer. Inspection under UV light is partly impeded, but does reveal tiny scattered retouchings throughout the composition and some larger areas of repair, e.g. in Christ cloak and above his heel and a few in the background. Offered in a plain wood and gilt frame, in fair condition.
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This unusually large painting, one of just a handful of works by the artist on linen, must surely have been conceived for the same purpose and as part of the same commission as Morales' Meeting of Anne and Joachim.¹ Each is of the same dimensions and stylistically they compare extremely closely to one another. Anne and Joachim is certain to have come from the church of the Concepción in Badajoz where it is known to have hung on a side altar. The present work's links to the Anne and Joachim must therefore strongly argue for a similar history and original purpose.

Prof. Isabel Mateo, a copy of whose expertise accompanies the lot, has dated this work towards the end of the artist's career, between 1570-76. She compares its setting to that of the artist's Mystical Allegory of Christ in the Prado,² in which Christ is shown standing amongst rocks, his cross cast aside, attended by a follower and a man carrying the nails of the cross. She further compares the distinctive, metallic, blue tunic to that of the Christ as the Man of Sorrws in the Minneapolis Institute of Art, and with this latter she draws further comparison with the beautifully-drawn elongated fingers and hands. As with the Minneapolis picture, and contrary to the vast majority of Morales' oeuvre, this appears to be a unique creation.

1. See Bäcksbacka, op. cit., p. 185, no. A3, reproduced p. 268, fig. 11.
2. See J.M. Ortega Calderón, Todo el Prado, Madrid 1996, p. 50, fig. 137.
3. See European Paintings from the Minneapolis Institute of Art, New York 1971, pp. 498-99, no. 267.